On Nov 11, 2016, an iron ball suddenly dropped from a building on a street in Suining, Sichuan province, and hit a girl who wasn't even a year old. She eventually died.
The police later collected finger prints and DNA information from the ball and matched every resident in the building, but could not confirm who threw the ball. The baby girl's family then sued the whole building. On Aug 27, 2020, the court ruled that every family residing in the building, except those who can prove they were not there that day, should pay 3,000 yuan in compensation to the bereaved family.
For long, the law forbids residents of high-rise buildings from throwing objects from their windows. Those doing so should bear responsibility for causing damage, loss of property and/or casualties. In fact, even if there is no damage, those throwing things can be charged with threatening public safety and face criminal charges for accidental killing or even intentional injury/murder. Anybody with common sense can guess the damage an iron ball falling from a window can cause.
Therefore, such action by someone who is aware of the consequences can only be treated as intentional. However, such accidents keep taking place and it is not always possible to pinpoint the suspect, as there might be 100 families living in a high-rise building.
As in the Sichuan case, the suspect might not be found in years and the responsibility will have to be shared by all residents.